This weeks reading by Murphie, Andrew, and John Potts looks at the relationship between culture and technologies. They look at answering questions such as what impact does technologies have in our lives? How do we live with them? Are technologies neutral in themselves, that is, does the way in which they are used determine their cultural impact? Or do technologies have intrinsic qualities that shape the culture into which they are introduced?

All of these questions are interesting in their own right, but the final idea about whether or not technologies are neutral in their own right or not made me think.

A definition of technological determinism is given as being the belief that technology is an agent for social change. They use the example of the phrase ‘you can’t stop progress’ as a good example of this belief.

Honestly that’s as far as I got in understanding this reading. It seriously hurt my brain, and after completing 2 essays in 2 days I gave up.

I blame technology!